A young girl living under the heel of her tyrannical religious zealot father in the depths of the Swedish forests finds strength in the memory of her rebellious grandmother, in the searing new feature from director Hanna Sköld.

Granny's Dancing on the Table

Year

2015

Runtime

85 min

Language

English, Swedish

Country

Sweden

Principal Cast

Blanca Engström, Lennart Jähkel

Over the last decade, several films from the
Nordic region have depicted people fleeing
the strictures of civilization to find refuge
in nature. But in Hanna Sköld's searing new
feature, a family has sought out this retreat
not in pursuit of some unspoiled Eden, but to
allow its male descendants' abusive behaviour
and religious fanaticism more privacy
and fewer restrictions.

Eini (Blanka Engström) is a young girl
who lives deep in the Swedish forests with
her father (Lennart Jähkel). First seen berating
his daughter for accidentally breaking a
glass and then trying to hide the evidence,
Eini's father is a fierce control freak and
religious zealot who regularly and ritualistically
counts up the household's meagre
possessions as a means of discovering Eini's
infractions of his tyrannical rules.

The deep roots of this family psychosis are
revealed through a parallel narrative, related
through animated sequences that depict the
religiously inspired abuse of the women of
Eini's family. This dreadful tradition dates
back to Eini's grandmother, who becomes
a figure of almost mythic import for Eini
— both as a symbol of freedom, and as the
reason for the girl's suffering in the present.

Evoking the aesthetic of fairy tales, the
animated sequences both indicate the limits
of Eini's understanding and suggest the
power of her resilient imagination — which,
of course, is exactly what her father (and his
ancestors) fear.

As the relationship between Eini and her
father deteriorates — and the girl begins to
see a possible way to escape her daily ordeal
— Sköld increases the suspense to almost
unbearable levels. This is some of the finest
and most fearless filmmaking of the year.